WHAT THE MANIFESTOS SAY 2019

INFRASTRUCTURE, EMPLOYMENT AND SKILLS, TRANSPORT AND DIGITAL This document sets out the key commitments on infrastructure, employment and skills, transport and digital policy in the 2019 Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat, Green Party and Brexit Party national manifestos. Local growth

**CONSERVATIVES**

- Invest £100 billion in additional infrastructure spending – on roads, rail and other responsible, productive investment which will repair and refurbish the fabric of our country and generate greater growth in the long run [...] flood defences will receive £4 billion in new funding. (p.27)

- [The] first Budget will prioritise the environment: investing in [research and development (R&D)]; decarbonisation schemes; new flood defences, which will receive £4 billion in new funding over the coming years; electric vehicle infrastructure including a national plug-in network and gigafactory; and clean energy. (p.55)

- [The] new Towns Fund will go to an initial 100 towns to improve their local economy – and they and only they will make the choice about what improvements their local area needs. (p.26)

- Through bodies like the Northern Powerhouse, Western Gateway and Midlands Engine drive greater levels of foreign investment into the UK, promoting our towns, cities and counties around the world. As part of plans for full devolution [...] invite proposals from local areas for similar growth bodies across the rest of England, such as the Oxford-Cambridge Arc. (p.29)

- Cement our Opportunity Areas programme to raise standards and support regeneration. (p.43)

- Amend planning rules so that the infrastructure – roads, schools, GP surgeries – comes before people move into new homes. [A] new £10 billion Single Housing Infrastructure Fund will help deliver it faster. (p.31)

- Create up to ten freeports around the UK, benefiting some of our most deprived communities. (p.57)

- Committing to the fastest ever increase in domestic public R&D spending, including in basic science research to meet our target of 2.4 per cent of GDP being spent on R&D across the economy. (p.40)

**LABOUR**

- Make sure that investment is spread evenly across the whole country and give powers and funding to every region and nation of the UK. (p.14)

- A Local Transformation Fund in each English region will be used exclusively to fund infrastructure projects decided at a local level, as will devolved governments in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. (p.14)

- Regional Development Banks will be governed by boards made up of key local stakeholders such as local chambers of commerce, trade unions and councillors – with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland empowered to make similar arrangements. (p.14) • Shift the political centre of gravity by placing the National Transformation Fund Unit, a key part of the Treasury, in the North of England and build up the regional offices of government in each of the nine English regions to co-ordinate government policies at the regional level, as well as ensuring a regional voice in Whitehall. (p.14)

• [Aim to] achieve the substantial majority of our emissions reductions by 2030. (p.12)

• Create a Sustainable Investment Board to bring together the Chancellor, Business Secretary and Bank of England Governor to oversee, co-ordinate and bring forward this investment – involving trade unions and business. (p.13)

• Ask the Office for Budget Responsibility to incorporate climate and environmental impacts into its forecasts. (p.13)

• Launch a National Transformation Fund of £400 billion and rewrite the Treasury’s investment rules to guarantee that every penny spent is compatible with our climate and environmental targets. Of this, £250 billion will directly fund the transition through a Green Transformation Fund dedicated to renewable and low-carbon energy and transport, biodiversity and environmental restoration. (p.13)

• Create a National Investment Bank, backed up by a network of Regional Development Banks, to provide £250 billion of lending for enterprise, infrastructure and innovation over 10 years. They will be mandated to lend in line with our mission to decarbonise our economy while increasing productivity and creating good jobs across the country. (p.13)

• Develop the recommendations of our ‘30 by 2030’ report to put the UK on track for a net-zero-carbon energy system within the 2030s – and go faster if credible pathways can be found. Deliver nearly 90 per cent of electricity and 50 per cent of heat from renewable and low-carbon sources by 2030. (p.14)

• Expand distributed and community energy, and immediately and permanently ban fracking. (p.15)

• Create an innovation nation, setting a target for 3 per cent of GDP to be spent on [R&D] by 2030. Achieve this target by increasing direct support for R&D and reforming the innovation ecosystem to better ‘crowd in’ private investment. (p.17)

• Establish a Foundation Industries Sector Council to provide a clean and long-term future for our existing heavy industries like steel and glass and fund R&D into newer technologies like hydrogen and carbon capture and storage. (p.17) LIBERAL DEMOCRATS

• Investing £130 billion in infrastructure [...] Which will prioritise: • Significant investment in public transport, including converting the rail network to ultra-low-emission technology (electric or hydrogen) by 2035, and a continued commitment to HS2, Crossrail 2 and other major new strategic rail routes. • A programme of installing hyper-fast, fibre-optic broadband across the UK – with a particular focus on connecting rural areas. • New direct spending on housebuilding to help build 300,000 homes a year by 2024, including 100,000 social homes. • An emergency ten-year programme to reduce energy consumption from all the UK’s buildings, cutting emissions and fuel bills and ending fuel poverty. • Capital investment in schools and hospitals to support capacity increases and modernisation. • £5 billion of initial capital for a new Green Investment Bank, using public money to attract private investment for zero-carbon priorities. (p.17) • Introduce a capital £50 billion Regional Rebalancing Programme for infrastructure spend across the nations and regions of the UK, with local and devolved authorities given a say in how it is used, reinforced by a Just Transition Fund to support communities negatively affected by policies to tackle the climate emergency. (p.16)

• Set an ambitious National Industrial Strategy to transform the economy and develop Local Industrial Strategies within it that incentivize clustering by businesses and universities with particular specialisations. (p.17) • Support the tourist industry by: • Upgrading the status of tourism within government, by creating a Department of Digital, Culture, Media, Sport and Tourism, with a designated Minister of State for Tourism. • Enabling local authorities to bring in tourist levies to fund local tourism infrastructure. (p.17) • Ensure that the National Infrastructure Commission takes fully into account the climate and environmental implications of all national infrastructure decisions. (p.17) • Work with the major banks to fund the creation of a local banking sector dedicated to meeting the needs of local small and medium-sized businesses. (p.17) • Expand the British Business Bank to perform a more central role in the economy, to ensure that viable small and medium-sized businesses have access to capital, even when the rest of the commercial banking system can’t provide it. (p.17) • Increase national spending on [R&D] to three per cent of GDP. Publish a roadmap to achieve this ambition by the earliest date possible, via an interim target of 2.4 per cent of GDP by no later than 2027. (p.18) • Support innovation, with a goal of doubling innovation spending across the economy. (p.18)

• Increase the Strength in Places Fund, to boost research and development [R&D] outside the ‘golden triangle’ of Oxford-Cambridge-London. (p.18)

• Build on the industrial strategy, creating more ‘Catapult’ innovation and technology centres and backing private investment in particular in zero-carbon and environmental innovation. (p.18)

• Reform building standards to ensure that all new homes built from 2022 have full connectivity to ultra-fast broadband and are designed to enable the use of smart technologies. (p.19)

• Continue to support investment in new UK digital start-ups by reforming the British Business Bank’s support for venture capital funds to enable it to help funds ‘crowd in’ new backers rather than acting as a funder of last resort. (p.19)

• Support growth in the creative industries, including video gaming, by continuing to support the Creative Industries Council and tailored industry-specific tax support, promoting creative skills, supporting modern and flexible patent, copyright and licensing rules, and addressing the barriers to finance faced by small creative businesses. (p.19)

• Create creative enterprise zones to grow and regenerate the cultural output of areas across the UK. (p.19)

• Support the growth of new jobs and businesses in the tech sector by allowing companies to claim R&D tax credits against the cost of purchasing datasets and cloud computing, simplifying the regulatory landscape and speeding up regulatory change. (p.19)

• Create a new ‘start-up allowance’ to help those starting a new business with their living costs in the crucial first weeks of their business. (p.19)

• Support fast-growing businesses seeking to scale up, through the provision of mentoring support. (p.19)

• Require all government agencies and contractors and companies with more than 250 employees to sign up to the prompt payment code, making it enforceable. (p.20) • Ensure that the company at the top of a supply chain cannot abuse its position to shore up its own cashflow at the expense of smaller suppliers. (p.20)

• Expand the activities of the British Business Bank, enabling it to perform a more central role in the economy by tackling the shortage of equity capital for growing firms and providing long-term capital for medium-sized businesses. (p.20)

• Provide a supportive framework to develop social enterprises – businesses with a social focus rather than a profit motive. (p.20)

• Finance the transformation of town centres by expanding the Future High Streets Fund. (p.20)

• Support investment and innovation in zero-carbon and resource-efficient infrastructure and technologies by creating a new Green Investment Bank and increasing funding for Innovate UK and new Catapult innovation and technology centres on farming and land use and on carbon dioxide removal. (p.14)

• Set up a £2 billion Rural Services Fund to enable the co-location of services in local hubs around existing local infrastructure. (p.68)

• Reform planning to ensure developers are required to provide essential local infrastructure from affordable homes to schools, surgeries and roads alongside new homes. (p.68)

• There will be a combined investment of over £100 billion a year in the Green New Deal. (p.6)

• Create a new public banking infrastructure to help deliver our ambitious programme and the Green New Deal will ensure the banks invest and lend at low, affordable interest rates to support the economy’s environmental transformation. (p.7)

• Create a new government department to oversee the implementation of the Green New Deal, led by a Carbon Chancellor. The Carbon Chancellor will set a yearly Carbon Budget, which will drive the decarbonisation of the economy. (p.38)

• Bring back the UK as an internationally recognised manufacturing powerhouse with proactive, wide-scale support for the UK-based manufacturing of renewable energy infrastructure. (p.18)

• Set new clean technology standards and invest in research and development [R&D] to help industry to meet them and create new job opportunities through doing so. Provide companies with grants to allow replacement of old high-emitting carbon equipment with newly developed low carbon equipment. (pp.18-19)

• Apply a Carbon Tax. This will raise the price of processes that use fossil fuels and thus of the products they produce. This will incentivize industry to switch to low and zero carbon technology and equipment as well as encouraging consumers to choose low carbon products. Non-fossil-fuel greenhouse gas emissions from industrial installations will also be subject to the Carbon Tax. (p.19) • Prepare for the rapid decommissioning of North Sea oil rigs and the phasing out of the UK’s remaining coal plants and coal mines, ensuring a just transition for workers affected. (p.19)

• Develop the infrastructure necessary to enable large corporations and individuals to recycle close to 100 per cent of the items they use. (p.19)

• Require manufacturers to only produce the most energy efficient, low emissions vehicles. (p.20)

• Enable communities to develop their own renewable energy projects, so that the benefits of locally generated energy can stay local. (p.10)

**BREXIT PARTY**

• Invest at least £50 billion in local road and rail schemes in our development-starved regions. (p.9)

• Invest in Strategic Industries: […] invest in strategic industries such as steel, railways and defence to create thousands of jobs. (p.11)

• Create Freeports in certain regions to encourage investment and create new jobs. (p.14)

• Accelerate infrastructure grants funding to kick start schemes of marginal viability. (p.23) Employment and skills

CONSERVATIVES

• Create a new National Skills Fund worth £3 billion over the next Parliament. This fund will provide matching funding for individuals and SMEs for high-quality education and training. A proportion will be reserved for further strategic investment in skills, and we will consult widely on the overall design. (p.36)

• In the next decade, work with the market to deliver two million new high quality jobs in clean growth. (p.55)

• Require significant numbers of new UK apprentices for all big new infrastructure projects. (p.36)

• Help employers invest in skills and look at how we can improve the working of the Apprenticeship Levy. (p.33)

• Invest in local adult education. (p.37)

• Ensure that £500 million of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund is used to give disadvantaged people the skills they need to make a success of life. (p.37)

• Increase SEND funding and support pupils, students and adults to get careers advice, internships, and transition into work. (p.17)

• Investing almost £2 billion to upgrade the entire further education college estate. And also have 20 Institutes of Technology, which connect high-quality teaching in science, technology, engineering and maths to business and industry. (p.36)

• Reduce the disability employment gap. (p.17)

• Publish a National Strategy for Disabled People before the end of 2020. This will look at ways to improve the benefits system, opportunities and access for disabled people in terms of housing, education, transport and jobs. (p.17)

• Our student visa will help universities attract talented young people and allow those students to stay on to apply for work here after they graduate. (p.22)

• Our start-up visa, alongside our new rules for those of exceptional talent, will ensure that we can attract the entrepreneurs of the future who want to start great businesses here in the UK. (p.22)

• The Youth Futures Foundation will invest at least £90 million to improve employment outcomes for young people. (p.23)

• Invest in technical skills and work incentives so British workers take up as many jobs as possible. (p.23)

• Invest far more in helping workers train and retrain for the jobs and industries of the future. (p.25)

• Launch a review to explore how we can better support the self-employed. That includes improving their access to finance and credit (not least mortgages), making the tax system easier to navigate, and examining how better broadband can boost homeworking. (p.34)

• Strengthen universities and colleges’ civic role. (p.37) LABOUR

• Make it easier for employers to spend the [apprenticeship] levy by allowing it to be used for a wider range of accredited training. (p.18)

• Launch a Climate Apprenticeship programme. These funds can be spent directly or allocated to a ring-fenced Climate Apprenticeship Fund, which will be topped up with any surplus raised through Inclusive Ownership Funds and made accessible to non levy-paying businesses. Targeted bursaries will be available to women, BAME people, care leavers, ex-armed forces personnel, and people with disabilities to encourage them to take up climate apprenticeships. (p.18)

• Align the base rate of per-pupil funding in post-16 education with Key Stage 4, providing dedicated capital funding to expand provision and bringing back the Education Maintenance Allowance. (pp.40-41)

• Make lifelong learning a reality, giving everyone a free lifelong entitlement to: ◦ Training up to Level 3. ◦ Six years training at Levels 4-6, with maintenance grants for disadvantaged learners. (p.41)

• Introduce additional entitlements for workers in industries that are significantly affected by industrial transition. Make sure training delivers the right skills by giving employers a role in co-design and co-production of qualifications. (p.41)

LIBERAL DEMOCRATS

• Empower individuals through new Skills Wallets worth £10,000 for every individual. (p.16)

• Develop the skilled workforce needed to support this growth by introducing a new two-year visa for students to work after graduation and a major expansion of high-quality apprenticeships including Higher Apprenticeships, backed up by new sector-led National Colleges (p.18)

• Develop a national skills strategy for key sectors, including zero-carbon technologies, to help match skills and people; our new Skills Wallets will allow people to retrain and upskill when they need to. (p.19) • Enable people whose jobs are affected by automation to gain new skills and retrain with our new Skills Wallets, so that they can work in the good, well-paying jobs of the future. (p.19)

• Introduce new Skills Wallets for every adult in England, giving them £10,000 to spend on education and training throughout their lives:

- The Government will put in £4,000 at age 25, £3,000 at age 40 and £3,000 at age 55.
- Individuals, their employers and local government will be able to make additional payments into the wallets.
- Individuals can choose how and when to spend this money on a range of approved education and training courses from providers who are regulated and monitored by the Office for Students.
- Individuals will have access to free careers guidance to help them to decide how to spend the money in their Skills Wallets.
- Government will work with industry to identify skills needs and to evaluate and certify courses. (p.25)

• Expand the apprenticeship levy into a wider ‘Skills and Training Levy’ to help prepare the UK’s workforce for the economic challenges ahead with 25 per cent of the funds raised by the levy going into a ‘Social Mobility Fund’ targeted at areas with the greatest skill needs. (p.25)

• Develop National Colleges as national centres of expertise for key sectors, such as renewable energy, to deliver the high-level vocational skills that businesses need. (p.25)

• Identify and seek to solve skills gaps such as the lack of advanced technicians by expanding higher vocational training like foundation degrees, Higher National Diplomas, Higher National Certificates and Higher Apprenticeships. (p.26)

• Ensure that everyone gets the help they need by separating employment support from benefits administration and increase spending on training and education. (p.65)

GREENS

• Give local authorities the power to direct the newly created training and skills programmes. National government will provide the funding and democratically elected local authorities will be given the power to decide how it should be spent, to help residents’ access new jobs. (p.19)

• Fund councils to deliver new training and skills for residents, to equip them for jobs created by the Green New Deal. (p.41)

• The Green New Deal will deliver solid financial foundations across society, through a range of measures including:

- The creation of millions of new jobs in renewable energy, transport, land management and other sectors transformed by the transition to a net zero carbon economy.
- The provision of the training people need to access these new jobs.
- The creation of at least 100,000 new socially rented homes a year through low carbon construction and retrofitting, converting and extending existing buildings. (pp.6-7) • Invest £2 billion a year in training and skills (including new apprenticeships), to help people access the new, decent jobs created through the transition to a low carbon economy. (p.19)

• Boost the repair and recondition sector with new apprenticeship schemes. (p.19)

• Create thousands of new jobs in rural areas, through the shift away from intensive farming towards smaller-scale, more people focused food production and land management that respects nature. Invest in training and skills to help people develop and apply the skills needed in these new jobs. (pp.21-22)

• Review current employment law to close loopholes that allow employers in the gig economy (where workers are offered freelance work or short-term contracts only) to deny gig workers key rights. Ensure that gig economy workers always receive at least the current minimum wage, and have job security, sick leave, holiday pay and pension provision. (p.51)

• Close the gender pay gap. Require all large and medium size companies to carry out equal pay audits and redress any inequality uncovered both in terms of equal pay for equal work, and recruitment and retention practices which create a glass ceiling which needs to be shattered. Change the law so it’s easier to take action against employers in unequal pay cases. (p.51)

• Revive the further education sector to provide a wider choice of academic and vocational learning. Raise the funding rate for 16–17-year-olds, followed by an annual rise in line with inflation, at the same time as introducing a capital expansion fund for sixth form providers. (p.57)

• Fully fund every higher education student and scrap undergraduate tuition fees. University will be fully accessible, with courses being offered as learning experiences, not as pre-work training. (p.57)

• Increase funding for adult education across England and Wales, creating a range of new adult education programmes for learners to access. These programmes will be integrated with Green New Deal training projects. (p.57)

• Further free up funding by introducing credit guidance for traditional banks, requiring them to increase their lending to small businesses and businesses focussed on the sustainability transition. (p.79)

• Grant 15 per cent of government contracts to small and micro businesses. Revise the government contract application process, to remove the current barriers for entry to small business. Encourage local authorities to adopt this model with their own contracts. (p.79)

• Increase the Employment Allowance to £10,000 (currently just £3,000) per year, allowing small businesses which employ people to claim back the equivalent National Insurance of four full-time workers earning the average salary. (p.79)

• Invest £2 billion a year in training and skills (including new apprenticeships), to help people access the new, decent jobs created through the transition to a low carbon economy. (p.19) BREXIT PARTY

• Scrap the [...] Apprentice Levy. Improve tax incentives for employers to take on genuine apprentices. (p.21)

• Reduce annual immigration and address wage stagnation and the skills gap by introducing a fair points system that is blind to ethnic origin. (p.16) Transport

CONSERVATIVES

• Give city regions the funding to upgrade their bus, tram and train services to make them as good as London’s, with more frequent, better-integrated services, more electrification, modern buses and trains and smart ticketing. (p.27)

• End the complicated franchising model and create a simpler, more effective rail system, including giving metro mayors control over services in their areas. (p.27)

• Make a £28.8 billion investment in strategic and local roads. Invest £1 billion in completing a fast-charging network to ensure that everyone is within 30 miles of a rapid electric vehicle charging station. (p.27)

• Invest in superbus networks with lower fares – flat fares in urban areas – and increased frequency. Keep bus fares low, bring back and protect rural routes, and speed up journeys. Invest in electric buses, developing the UK’s first all electric-bus town. (p.28)

• Require that a minimum service operates during transport strikes. (p.27)

• Launch the biggest ever pothole-filling programme as part of our National Infrastructure Strategy. (p.28)

• Create a new £350 million Cycling Infrastructure Fund with mandatory design standards for new routes. Extend Bikeability – cycling proficiency training – to every child. (p.28)

• Build Northern Powerhouse Rail between Leeds and Manchester and then focus on Liverpool, Tees Valley, Hull, Sheffield and Newcastle. (p.27)

• Invest in the Midlands Rail Hub, strengthening rail links including those between Birmingham, Leicester, Nottingham, Coventry, Derby, Hereford and Worcester. (p.27)

• Invest in improving train lines to the South West and East Anglia. (p.27)

• Extend contactless pay-as-you-go ticketing to almost 200 more stations in the South East, meaning that 50 per cent of all rail journeys and almost all London commuter journeys can be completed using a contactless bank card. (p.27)

• Consider the findings of the Oakervvee review into [HS2’s] costs and timings and work with leaders of the Midlands and the North to decide the optimal outcome. (p.27)

• Restore many of the Beeching lines, reconnecting smaller towns such as Fleetwood and Willenhall that have suffered permanent disadvantage since they were removed from the rail network in the 1960s. (p.27)

• The [Heathrow Third Runway Scheme] will receive no new public money. (p.28)

• Consult on the earliest date we can phase out the sale of new conventional petrol and diesel cars. (p.27)

• Build on Britain’s pioneering work in electric and low-carbon flight. (p.28) • Use new air traffic control technology to cut the time aircraft spend waiting to land, reducing delays, noise nuisance and pollution. (p.28) • Build Britain’s pioneering work in electric and low-carbon flight. (p.28) • Keep [...] the older person’s bus pass and other pensioner benefits. (p.16)

LABOUR • Ensure that councils can improve bus services by regulating and taking public ownership of bus networks, and [...] give them resources and full legal powers to achieve this cost-effectively. Increase and expand local services, reinstating the 3,000 routes that have been cut. (p.19) • Where councils take control of their buses, introduce free bus travel for under-25s. (p.19) • Bring our railways back into public ownership, using options including franchise expiry. (p.20) • Implement a full, rolling programme of electrification. (p.20) • Introduce a long-term investment plan including delivering Crossrail for the North as part of improved connectivity across the northern regions. (p.20) • Unlock capacity and extend high-speed rail networks nationwide by completing the full HS2 route to Scotland. (p.20) • Promote the use of rail freight in order to reduce carbon emissions. (p.20) • Increase the funding available for cycling and walking [...] bring together transport and land-use planning to create towns and cities in which walking and cycling are the best choice. (p.20) • Help children’s health and well-being by ensuring street designs provide freedom for physically active outdoor play and by introducing measures to ensure the zones around our schools are safer, with cleaner air. (p.20) • End new sales of combustion engine vehicles [...] by 2030. (p.20) • Invest in electric vehicle charging infrastructure and in electric community car clubs… accelerate the transition of our public sector car fleets and our public buses to zero-emissions vehicles. (p.20) • Adopt an ambitious Vision Zero approach to UK road safety, striving for zero deaths and serious injuries. (p.20) • Invest to make our neglected local roads, pavements and cycleways safer for the everyday journeys of both drivers and vulnerable road users. (p.20) • Review all tolled crossings. (p.20) LIBERAL DEMOCRATS

• Give new powers to local authorities and communities to improve transport in their areas, including the ability to introduce network-wide ticketing, like in London. (p.47)

• Implement, in cooperation with local authorities, light rail schemes for trams and tram-trains where these are appropriate solutions to public transport requirements. (p.47)

• Restore bus routes and add new routes where there is local need; we will provide £4.5 billion over five years for this programme. (p.47)

• Invest in public transport, electrifying Britain’s railways and ensuring that all new cars are electric by 2030. (p.40)

• Invest in public transport, buses, trams and railways to enable people to travel more easily while reducing their impact on the environment. (p.46)

• Accelerating the transition to ultra-low-emission transport – cars, buses and trains – through taxation, subsidy and regulation. (p.46)

• Accelerate the rapid take-up of electric vehicles by reforming vehicle taxation, cutting VAT on EVs to 5 per cent and increasing the rate of installation of charging points, including residential on-street points and ultra-fast chargers at service stations […] ensure that, by 2030, every new car and small van sold is electric. (p.47)

• Extend Ultra-Low Emission Zones to ten more towns and cities in England and ensure that all private hire vehicles and new buses licensed to operate in urban areas are ultra-low-emission or zero-emission vehicles by 2025; […] provide £2 billion to support this transformation. (p.47)

• Shift more freight from road to rail, including electrifying lines leading from major ports as an urgent priority, and amend the current HGV road user levy to take account of carbon emissions. (p.47)

• Place a moratorium on the development of new runways (net) in the UK, opposing any expansion of Heathrow, Gatwick or Stansted and any new airport in the Thames Estuary. (p.47)

• Introduce a nationwide strategy to promote walking and cycling, including the creation of dedicated safe cycling lanes, increasing spending per head five-fold to reach 10 per cent of the transport budget. (p.47)

• Build on the successful Local Sustainable Transport Fund […] and workplace travel plans, to reduce the number of cars – particularly single-occupancy cars – used for commuting, and encourage the development of car-sharing schemes and car clubs and autonomous vehicles for public use. (p.48)

• Amend planning rules to promote sustainable transport and land use. (p.48)

• Extend Britain’s rail network, improve stations, reopen smaller stations and restore twin-track lines to major routes. (p.48) • Convert the rail network to ultra-low-emission technology (electric or hydrogen) by 2035, and provide funding for light rail and trams. (p.48)

• Support High Speed 2, Northern Powerhouse Rail, East-West Rail and Crossrail 2, but ensure far tighter financial controls and increased accountability to ensure that these projects are value for money, and address problems with implementation to ensure that HS2 opens as early as possible to meet our decarbonisation goals while minimising the destruction of precious UK habitats and woodland. (p.48)

• Start a revolution in rail franchising by opening up the bidding process to public sector companies, local or combined authorities, not-for-profits and mutuals – which have the potential to deliver much better services than private operators. (p.48)

• Build into new rail franchise agreements a stronger focus on customers, including investment in new stations, lines and modern trains. (p.48)

• Create a new Railways Agency to oversee the operations of the railway network, removing the Department for Transport from day-to-day decision-making. (p.48)

• Be far more proactive in sanctioning and ultimately sacking train operators if they fail to provide a high-quality public service to their customers. (p.48)

• Improve the experience of people who rely on the railways for work by investing in commuter routes and the integration of rail, bus and cycle routes. (p.48)

• Improve disabled access to public transport via the Access for All programme. (p.48)

• Substantially increase funding for buses, enabling local authorities to restore old routes and open new ones. (p.68)

• Support rural bus services and encouraging alternatives to conventional bus services where they are not viable. (p.68)

• Encourage local authorities to use their new powers under the Bus Services Act, including franchising powers and repealing the rule preventing local councils from running their own bus companies. (p.68)

• Provide funding to accelerate the transition to electric buses. (p.68)

GREENS

• Ensure all new developments will be located and designed to ensure that residents do not need cars to live a full life, either having safe pedestrian access to local shops and schools, or are within 1km of a local rail, tube or tram station, or 500m of a high frequency bus service. (p.13)

• Give responsibility for running short-distance passenger rail franchises to councils, or groups of councils that come together to work on local transport. This will give local communities a greater say in the running of the rail services they rely on […] bring all railways back into public ownership over ten years. (p.16) • Give all local authorities control over bus services (as London currently has) and support local authorities to restore lost bus routes and open new ones. Local authorities serving urban areas will be encouraged to explore tramways as an additional public transport option. (p.16)

• Fund local authorities to improve the appearance and facilities of bus stops, bus stations and train stations, to make them more user friendly and convenient for both passengers and transport staff. This includes the provision of more public toilets, and ensuring full accessibility for disabled people. (p.16)

• Spend £2.5 billion a year on new cycleways and footpaths, built using sustainable materials, such as woodchips and sawdust. (p.15)

• Make travelling by public transport cheaper than travelling by car, by reducing the cost of travelling by train and bus. Coach travel will also be encouraged, with new routes for electric coaches provided across the country. (p.16)

• Create a new golden age of train by opening new rail connections that remove bottlenecks, increase rail freight capacity, improve journey times and frequencies, enhance capacity in the South West, Midlands and North, and connect currently unconnected urban areas. We would also look, where possible, to re-open closed stations. These rail improvements will benefit from funding switched from the damaging HS2 scheme, which we will cancel. (p.16)

• Electrify all railway lines that connect cities, improving punctuality. (p.16)

• Create a government-owned rolling stock company which would invest in a fleet of new electric trains to run on newly electrified lines. (p.16)

• Ensure good railway connections with all ports to enable more freight between ports and inland terminals to be carried on rail [...] invest in additional freight routes resulting in the majority of long-distance freight switching from road to rail. (p.16)

• Provide more bus priority measures on the roads to improve punctuality. (p.16)

• End the sale of new petrol and diesel fuelled vehicles by 2030. (p.17)

• Create a network of electric vehicle charging points across the country, by requiring their construction through the planning system and encouraging the private sector to deliver them [...] ensure that these charging points are located in public places, and do not take up pavement and cycling space… require all existing petrol stations and motorway service stations to offer electric vehicle charging points by 2025. (p.17)

• Civilise our streets by making Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (in which rat-running is blocked) the norm for residential areas and making 20 miles per hour the default speed limit. (p.17)

• Make 40 miles per hour the default speed limit in non-residential areas except on major roads. (p.17) • Ensure through the planning system that all new housing is served by high quality walking and cycling routes and much improved bus, tram and local rail services. New residents must not be forced into car use. (p.18)

• Require manufacturers to only produce the most energy efficient, low emissions vehicles. (p.20)

• Encourage a shift from models of ownership to usership, such as with car-sharing platforms and neighbourhood libraries for tools and equipment. (p.20)

• Scrapping the […] HS2 rail line. The funds freed up will be spent on more effective sustainable public transport options, as part of the Green New Deal. This will enable an increase in rail capacity in regions that desperately need more investment, including the creation of three electrified rail lines running from Liverpool and Manchester to Sheffield, Hull and the Tees Valley. These three newly electrified lines will run through Bradford and Leeds, creating new rail hubs in the heart of Yorkshire. (p.79)

**BREXIT PARTY**

• Scrap HS2 (p.8)

• Invest at least £50 billion in local road and rail schemes in our development-starved regions. (p.8) Digital technology

**CONSERVATIVES**

- Bring full fibre and gigabit capable broadband to every home and business across the UK by 2025. (p.28)
- £5 billion of new public funding to connect premises which are not commercially viable. (p.28)
- Implement the Digital Services Tax. (p.35)

**LABOUR**

- Deliver free full-fibre broadband to all by 2030. (p.53)
- Establish British Broadband, with two arms: British Digital Infrastructure (BDI) and the British Broadband Service (BBS). Bring the broadband-relevant parts of BT into public ownership, with a jobs guarantee for all workers in existing broadband infrastructure and retail broadband work. BDI will roll out the remaining 90–92 per cent of the full-fibre network, and acquire necessary access rights to existing assets. BBS will coordinate the delivery of free broadband in tranches as the full-fibre network is rolled out, beginning with the communities worst served by existing broadband networks. Taxation of multinationals, including tech giants, will pay for the operating costs of the public full-fibre network. (p.53)

**LIBERAL DEMOCRATS**

- Install hyper-fast, fibre-optic broadband across the UK – with a particular focus on connecting rural areas. (p.17)
- Prioritise small and medium-sized businesses in the rollout of hyper-fast broadband. (p.19)
- Develop a mechanism to allow the public to share in the profits made by tech companies in the use of their data. (p.19)
- Empower consumers and ensure that everyone can enjoy the benefits of new technology, by setting a UK-wide target for digital literacy and requiring all products to provide a short, clear version of their terms and conditions, setting out the key facts as they relate to individuals’ data and privacy. (p.19)
- Ensure that all households and businesses have access to superfast broadband (30Mbps download and 6Mbps upload). (p.68)
- Invest £2 billion in innovative solutions to ensure the provision of high-speed broadband across the UK, working with local authorities and providing grants to help areas replicate the success of existing community-led projects. (p.68)
- Invest in mobile data infrastructure and expand it to cover all homes. (p.68) GREENS

• Better connected rural communities through reliable broadband and mobile internet, delivered through councils who understand local connection needs. (p.22)

• Roll out high speed broadband (p.79)

BREXIT PARTY

• Invest in digital infrastructure: partner with service providers to offer free base level domestic broadband in deprived regions and free Wi-Fi on all public transport. (p.8)